"What is to happen next?" wondered Tom Sedley. In a few minutes a door which opens from the back yard or garden of the house from which he had received his burthen, opened cautiously, and a woman in a cloak stepped out, carrying another bag, a heavy one it also seemed, and beckoning to him, said, so soon as he was sufficiently near-- "Is the carriage come?" "Yes'm," answered Tom, touching his hat, and affecting as well as he could the ways of a porter or a cabman. "When they comes," she resumed, "you'll bring us to where it is, mind, and fetch the things with you--and mind ye, no noise nor talking, and walk as light as you can." "All right," said Tom, in the same whisper in which she spoke. It could not be a robbery--Tom had changed his mind; there was an air of respectability about the servant that conflicted with that theory, and the discovery that the carriage was waiting to receive the party was also against it. Tom was growing more interested in his adventure; and entering into the fuss and mystery of the plot. "Come round, please, and show me where the carriage stands," said the woman, beckoning to Tom, who followed her round the corner. She waited for him, and laid her hand on his elbow, giving him a little jog by way of caution. "Hush--not a word above your breath, mind," she whispered; "_I_ see that's it; well, it needn't come no nearer, mind." "All right, ma'am." "And there's the window," she added in a still more cautious whisper, and pointing with a nod and a frown at a window next the hall door, through the shutter of which a dim light was visible. "Ha!" breathed Tom, looking wise, "and all safe _there_?" "We're never sure; sometimes awake; sometimes not; sometimes quiet; sometimes quite wild-like; and the window pushed open, for hair! Hoffle he is!" "And always was," hazarded Tom. "Wuss now, though," whispered she, shaking her head ruefully, and she returned round the angle of the house and entered the door through which she had issued, and Tom set down his load not far from the same point. Before he had waited many minutes the same door re-opened, and two ladies, as he judged them to be from something in their air and dress, descended the steps together, followed by the maid carrying the black-leather bag as before. They stopped just under the door, which the servant shut cautiously and locked; and then these three female figures stood for a few seconds whispering together; and after that they turned and walked up the lane towards Tom Sedley, who touched his hat as they approached, and lifted his load again.